Hurtful Truth
by RancorO4
Summary: A Clone Wars veteran has been sent on a mission on behalf of Emperor Palpatine himself. A brief skirmish against the Ghost Crew leaves him captured, and forced to reveal a hurtful Truth, A oneshot


"Don't you get it? The chips were the only things keeping us sane."

Should I back up?

This seems like a good place to back up.

My name is Dirge, no, not the Seppie Dirge.

That guy was a jerk.

501st Claw Company Lieutenant Dirge.

Would have been a Captain if Rex wasn't so superstitious.

Anyway. This all started back with Tup. For those of you unaware, Tup's Chip, the "inhibitor" Chip put into each and every Clone, except for the Alpha ARCs of course.

Everyone keeps asking why the ARCs are so crazy…

Anyway, Tup went crazy in the middle of a battle, executed a Jedi right in front of a huge Seppie army.

Tup died a while later.

But, what happened next is just as important, fast forward, and Order 66 comes down. We executed the Jedi. At the temple, we were outnumbered, I, I remember explosions and screaming. Jedi are surprisingly easy to kill. Shotgun can take care of 'em easy enough. They're never looking for snipers, explosions are foolproof and too many shots-even from one blaster- quickly overwhelms them.

Fast forward what? Fourteen, Fifteen years, and I had been sent to the backwater planet of Lothal.

Lothal was an interesting planet.

Many idio- people, tried to become Stormtroopers, but so many fail. To ensure that the true Stormtrooper Corp is still considered strong, while also having a larger force to intimidate with, we had to find backwater planets to get rid of the unwanted rabble.

Lothal was one such planet.

Emperor Palpatine himself had been watching it, and had decided that it would be the Spark that would ignite a rebellion.

A rebellion that would be short lived.

The plan was simple, make the Rebels look good, make other Rebels unite, crush them all in one blow.

Easy.

And then of course, there was Rex.

I jumped through the Blaster Fire. My Stormtrooper Squad had been instructed not to hit any of the important Rebels, not that either side seemed to be able to hit each other.

Absolutely useless.

As I shot two of the Rebels in pilot armour, the Jedi runt turned his attention to me.

Now there were several reasons why most Jedi didn't incorporate a blaster into a Lightsaber.

The kid must have shot me three times by the time I charged into him.

My squad was closing in on the Ghost. I can't remember why it had landed, some deal with Pirates probably.

Either way, I knocked the runt down onto the ground.

Giving him a half hearted kick, I jumped onto the Ghost, their stupid little ugly ship.

My job was simple, put trackers everywhere, one really obvious one right in the main Cockpit.

What I hadn't expected was to see my brothers again.

The blast took me off my feet, and I could only look up and see the same face I look into every day to shave.

"Brother?"

When I came to, my wound was worsening despite the Bacta applied to it.

Rex, Wolffe, and a Commando who was very obviously mentally deranged-I don't mean Sev deranged, I mean proper crazy deranged- stood above me, alongside the Jedi Runt and what looked like a bald wookiee.

Either way they began what I'm sure they believe was torture.,

"Why, you had a choice to follow me, and yet you stayed. Why?"

"Because I didn't want into a child's pants." I spat onto Rex's armour.

"You tried to save the Galaxy once, why are you trying to ruin it now?" The blue haired runt stood up and walked towards me.

"I'm sorry I don't understand. How is maintaining peace and order, ruining the Galaxy-terrorist?"

"We are saving it from the atrocities of the Empire. The slavery, the crime. The evil." I couldn't keep a straight face.

"You think this is bad?" I laughed, "You should have seen the other Government."

"What?"

"It's a bad sign when the only army that the Republic had, was slaves, Religious nut jobs, and a handful of rich kids who wanted to make mummy and daddy proud."

"What is he talking about."

"We didn't get a choice in what we did." I answered, "During the Clone Wars, our Inhibitor Chips ensured we followed whatever the Jedi told us-"

"They killed Tup and Fives!" Rex shouted in my face.

I sighed in response.

"We both looked at Tup's chip. It was broken, no orders were coming out of that one."

"And yet-"

"Face it Rex, your whole cause to leave was just an attempt to fill Omega's shoes." Rex took a step back, big baby refusing to even slap me.

"What happened to every Clone that let you cut the Chip out of them? They all died. They all just happened to refuse orders, or did something extremely stupid. And they died."

"That was-"

"Coincidence!" I shouted back, "Bantha! Look around you. Commando over there's not even sane, while Wolffe just joined you to get back at Ahsoka." Rex and Wolffe shared a look. Wolffe had never forgiven Ahsoka for turning to Ventress when she was framed for the bombing. Plo Koon may have ensured Wolffe hadn't hurt either of them, but that didn't stop him from wanting revenge.

"Order 66 wasn't the order to kill Jedi. It was to ensure we wouldn't be pushed around any longer. It was an order to get rid of these Chips without harming us. Funny how none of us shot as Skywalker when he found us huh?"

"Huh?"

"Face it Rex, you worked out that you got it wrong. These Chips are exactly what they told us they were. You couldn't handle it though. You just had to be right."

"Do not lecture me-"

"Lecture? LECTURE! I cannot lecture you. You made that apparent when you left your brothers because you were horny." I replied, my fury peaking.

"I didn't-"

"Didn't you? Then explain to me what happened? Why did you fake your own death? We got equal rights, we were finally given a choice, a choice to be something other than a slave. But you couldn't let it go could you? You just had to-" Rex finally snapped, slapping me across the face. As Wolffe and the Commando pulled him away, the tall Alien raised his blaster at me, and yellow electricity surrounded my laughing body.

My troopers found me a week later. I was bloodied in one of the Rebel's "bases". Nothing more than a few rocks with a terminal inside.

They slaughtered the Rebels, found me, and we left. My orders, directly from Emperor Palpatine, was to contact Lord Vader. He was to wipe out the Rebel's fleet. Everyone likes a good underdog story, right?

"Hey, Dirge." One of the Troopers in my Elite Squad ran up to me. We were walking through an Imperial Star Destroyer, I can't remember the name. _Endurance_, or something stupid like that.

"Yeah kid?" The Kid was Nile's daughter, a good shot and smart on her feet. A bit cowardly, but good in a fight.

"Sir," The girl walked in front of me and turned around, "What happened on Lothal?" I hadn't actually remembered what the name of the planet was, it had been a week, you can't blame me.

"I got captured-"

"Sir, you haven't been right ever since."

"Kid," I sighed, "What would have happened if one of the few people you ever looked up to-Watts for example- suddenly betrayed you, lied to you, and killed so many people you love, just so he didn't have to admit he was wrong, so that he could sleep with someone. How would you feel?" I probably should have spoken with more emotion there but, we were taught emotion was a weakness, we killed the Kaminoans for that, but still.

"S-sir?"

Hah, hah. That Stormtrooper fellow was funny. Twenty Credits says he made everyone want to kill each other on purpose. Discord's so pretty.

"Why?" Rex shouted in Wolffe's face.

"Because I wanted vengeance." Wolffe replied, calm for a man about to get a fist in the face.

"The Empire killed Plo Koon." Rexy boy took a step towards Wolffe.

"NO!" Wolffe pushed Rex, "We killed Plo Koon. Clone Troopers, just like you and I, killed Plo Koon. Jag, one of Kenobi's boys did. You read Dirge's theory, and yet here we are. The Chips were constructed to make us loyal to the Jedi, and when the Chips broke, we all released oujr pent up anger. The Jedi got what was coming for them." I had to jump to make sure Rex didn't punch Wolffe as funny as it would be to have to fat guys duke it ou- hang on, we're all the same size…

Kriff!

"They didn't have a choice-"

"Haven't you been listening, we have a choice. Face it Rex, you are just to stuck to your ways to change."

"Then why did you follow me for all these years?"

"Follow you?" Wolffe didn't laugh, but I sure did, "You followed me, you came to me, tears in your eyes, bawling your eyes out because none of the 501st followed you. Or did you lie to me back then? Did you even let the 501st know what happened?"

"I-"

"Come on Gregor, we're going home. Call us if you mature." I hopped after Wolffe.

"Hey Wolffe."

"Yes?"

"Is the reason why you're the sanest because you still have your Chip?"

"I, I guess…"

"Good thing Rex didn't lose his chip like me then."

"Gregor?"

"Well, I mean, I'm still getting the orders to stay loyal right, but you killed that jedi, blue dude. So, I'm supposed to kill you." Wolffe looked absolutely hilarious.

"I won't, but, that's why I'm so crazy aren't I?"

Wolffe just pulled me into a hug, as tears went down both of our faces.

**Hey, so this is my headcanon on how the Inhibitor Chips really work on Clone Troopers. I know its a little... different, but I still think that the Clone Troopers shouldn't have had the Inhibitor Chips in the first place.**

**Either way, thank you for reading and have a good May the Fourth. I know this will be realised a bit before May the Fourth but I'm busy so ****_eh_****.**

**Have a good day**


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